Treason at Lisson Grove by Anne Perry

Author:Anne Perry [Perry, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780345524416
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-04-16T14:00:00+00:00

PITT CEASED TO STRUGGLE. At first, in the heat of the moment, there was no point. He was in the grasp of two burly constables, both convinced they had apprehended a violent lunatic who had just hurled two men, possibly strangers to him, off a fast-moving train.

The irate and terrified passengers who had witnessed half the events had seen Pitt on the platform with the first man who had gone over, and then alone with Gower just before he had been pitched over as well.

“I know what I saw!” one of them stated. He stood as far away from Pitt as he could, his face a mask of horror in the railway platform gaslight. “He threw them both over. You want to watch yourselves or he’ll have you too! He’s insane! He has to be. Threw them over, one after the other.”

“We were fighting!” Pitt protested. “He attacked me, but I won!”

“Which one of them would that be, sir?” one of the constables asked him. “The first one, or the second one?”

“The second one,” Pitt answered but he heard the note of desperation in his own voice. It sounded ridiculous, even to him.

“Maybe he didn’t like it that you’d thrown the first man off the train,” the constable said reasonably. “ ’e was tryin’ to arrest you. Good citizen doin’ ’is duty.”

“He attacked me the first time,” Pitt tried to explain. “The other man was trying to rescue me, and he lost the fight!”

“But when this second man attacked you, you won, right?” the constable said with open disbelief.

“Obviously, since I’m here,” Pitt snapped. “If you undo the manacles, I’ll show you my warrant card. I’m a member of Special Branch.”

“Yes, sir,” the constable said sarcastically. “They always go around throwin’ people off trains. Very special, they are.”

Pitt barely controlled his temper. “Look in my pocket, inside my coat, up at the top,” he said between his teeth. “You’ll find my card.”

The constables looked at each other. “Yeah? An’ why would you be pitchin’ people off trains, sir?”

“Because the man attacked me,” Pitt said again. “He is a dangerous man planning violence here.” He knew as he spoke how absurd that sounded, considering that Gower was dead on the track, and Pitt was standing here alive and unhurt, apart from a few bruises. “Look,” he went on, trying anew. “Gower attacked me. The stranger came to my rescue, but Gower was stronger and he lost the fight. I couldn’t save him. Then Gower attacked me, but this time I was ready. I won. Look for my warrant card. That’ll prove who I am.”

The constables exchanged glances again. Then one of them very gingerly approached Pitt and held his coat open with one hand, while the other felt inside his inner pocket.

“There in’t nothin’ there, sir,” he said, removing his hand quickly.

“There’s my warrant card and my passport,” Pitt said with a sense of rising panic. It had to be. He had had them both when he got onto the train at Shoreham.

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